Higher education in Viet Nam: the influence of the privatisation and internationalisation policies and the cross-cutting issue of quality Luna Iacopini, Geneva University

Presentation outline The higher education system in Viet Nam The internationalisation process of higher education in Viet Nam The privatisation process of higher education in Viet Nam Quality of Vietnamese higher education Conclusion

The higher education system in Viet Nam Most ancient higher education system of South-east Asia Influence of different countries: France, the former Soviet Union and the USA Since 1993, higher education in Viet Nam has undertaken major reforms The number of Vietnamese students enrolled in universities is constantly increasing

Evolution of the number of university and college (public and non-public) students

The internationalisation process It appears at the beginning of the 1990s with the implementation of the Open Doors policy It takes place mainly through cross- border student mobility and cross-border institutional mobility

The privatisation process 1986 : adoption of the Doi Moi reforms that, for the very first time, opened up the higher education sector to non-public actors 1988: creation of Thang Long University Establishment of new types of universities beside the public ones: 1) semi-public institutes; 2) people founded institutes and 3) private institutes new types of universities beside the public ones: 1) semi-public institutes (ba cong); 2) people founded institutes (dan lap) and 3) private institutes (tu lap) [1]. [1]

Evolution of the number of students attending non-public universities

Quality of the Vietnamese higher education Very high student/faculty ratio Difficulties in recruiting qualified lectures Low salaries for faculty members Little resources allocated to research activities Strong governmental control on curricula Lack of accurate data

Conclusion (1) The collaboration with foreign universities could foster the establishment of a national accreditation system based on international standards The emergence of new actors has contributed to the creation of a broader offering of curricula Through the collaboration with foreign universities, Vietnamese students and faculty members are familiarised with new teaching methods HOWEVER

Conclusion (2) For all these improvements to take place a strong commitment of the Vietnamese government is indispensable to improve the university system in Viet Nam and to prevent the increase of social inequalities within the Vietnamese society

Thank you for your attention!